(Reuters Breakingviews) - It's usually a bad sign when a technology company spends more time buying than building. Tencent may prove to be an exception. The Chinese goliath’s investment portfolio has surpassed $66 billion with stakes in music, fintech and more. Recent successes could validate the deal spree.
HONG KONG - It’s usually a bad sign when a technology company spends more time buying than building. Tencent may prove to be an exception. The Chinese goliath’s investment portfolio has surpassed $66 billion with stakes in music, fintech and more. Recent successes could validate the deal spree.
That same year, Tencent boss Pony Ma embarked on a frenzied buying binge, snapping up stakes in everything from Amer Sports, the Finnish maker of Wilson tennis racquets and other gear, to real estate conglomerate Dalian Wanda’s commercial property division. As with earlier investments, the strategic rationale was unclear. Research firm ITJuzi estimates that Tencent picked up a record 163 holdings in 2018, an average of three a week.
Its M&A appetite may derive from Goldman Sachs, where two of Ma’s top lieutenants worked before joining Tencent. One is Martin Lau, who chairs the investment committee. The other is the company’s chief strategy officer, James Mitchell. The duo is widely regarded as the driving force behind Tencent’s acquisitive nature. At a conference in January, Lau said the company had invested in over 800 companies since 2008, a fifth of which are valued at $1 billion or more.
What’s more, Tencent benefits strategically too. E-commerce outfits, for example, can broaden the range of services offered on WeChat, making the all-in-one app and its mobile payments system even more indispensable to more than 1 billion monthly active users. Pinduoduo’s Groupon-like site, for instance, links directly to Tencent’s social network, which has benefitted both.
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